Off The Record
LOOK FOR A LIVELY pro-gun rally in front of the County Courthouse this Friday at 5pm. Organizer Dan Kuny said Monday, “We’re not with any organized group. Just local, law-abiding people angry about how...
View ArticleWith Audits Like These…
With great fanfare last July, Governor Jerry Brown launched an “investigation” into “the circumstances surrounding significant budgetary irregularities at the California Department of Parks and...
View ArticleTomlin Out! Turmoil Roils The Valley
A 3-2 majority of Anderson Valley school trustees, meeting in closed session a week ago, had informally stated their intention not to renew the contract of Boonville high school principal, James...
View ArticleCaltransigence
Ever since The Warbler rigged herself to a rope and harness in the early morning of January 28, then hoisted herself precisely 71 feet high into a ponderosa pine tree slated for chainsawing by...
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Mendocino County Today: February 27, 2013
Skaggs REMEMBER CHRISTOPHER SKAGGS? He piled into a redwood at Navarro last November after a high speed chase that resulted in an officer being flown to an out of the area hospital for the injuries he...
View ArticleAmbergris
Mom and pop gold panning is enjoying a rebirth in California. I examined a few videos about stream panning, and decided instead to renew my interest in ocean beachcombing after Googling, “What’s more...
View ArticleThe Wonderful World Of Online ‘Debate’
“You idiotic leftist, liberal, commie, right-wing fascist nanny moron etc etc etc…..” Are printed newspapers dying? Even the AVA? Let us hope not, and if so inclined even pray not — for many reasons,...
View ArticleBird’s Eye View
Greetings one and all. If you are sitting comfortably then I shall begin. Quick update for those of you who have followed the All That Good Stuff saga over the past year that is soon to conclude...
View ArticleHomeless Forum
Unable to attend the forum on the homeless that was held in Mendocino near the end of January, I did read the three articles in the Mendocino Beacon that reported in some detail and with a certain...
View ArticleRiver Views
Last week’s AVA contained a letter to the editor from a spokesperson for a group that calls itself “Friends of Enchanted Meadow (FOEM).” FOEM presently seeks $15,000 in donations for a matching grant...
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Legalize Industrial Hemp
Industrial Hemp! It’s long past time to end the insanity of making industrial hemp cultivation illegal in the US. It’s hurting our already faltering economy. Making industrial hemp a legal crop could...
View ArticleThe Old Philo Post Office
In this era of e-mails, instant-messaging and tweets, it can be difficult to remember the importance of the local post office in earlier times. In many rural communities, the post office was the...
View ArticleTo The Heartland
When the money ran out, we packed up and headed back to the states. I confess I was a little sad to leave Paris and the relative safety of the situation. The gang had insulated me from pretty much all...
View ArticleSpring Training
With fifteen major league baseball teams training in the Phoenix area, you would think that a baseball fan would be in heaven, racing from ballfield to ballfield collecting autographs and taking in the...
View ArticleHow One Sentence Saved Me From Living My Whole Life As A Well-Meaning Hick
I often think it must be easier to be a white guy, but truthfully it ain’t easy being anybody. — Sherman Alexie There were upsides to growing up in Willits in the 1980s — an enduring appreciation for...
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Mendocino County Today: February 28, 2013
Miller WALTER MILLER, 42, has not been apprehended. We had it wrong in the print edition of this week’s AVA. He’s on the loose. Miller has been identified as the man who opened fire on a pursuing...
View ArticleLetters To The Editor
ASSASSINATION NATION Editor, I believe killing people with drones to be profoundly immoral-alas. This nation is deeply invested in killing people in this manner and we are building ever more bases...
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Mendocino County Today: March 1, 2013
FUGITIVE SURRENDERS to MCSO at Ukiah hotel after a stand-off with the Mendocino County Sheriff’s. — Miller After a two-day search, authorities on Wednesday arrested Walter Kristopher Miller, 42, of...
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Mendocino County Today: March 2, 2013
WILLITS BYPASS: You know, for the entire 40 years or so that I have been lucky to call this county home, I’ve been struck by the absurdity of the perpetual traffic jam on 101 as it passes through...
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Mendocino County Today: March 3, 2013
LAST WEEK Friends of the Gualala River (FoGR) announced that they were celebrating the announcement that The Conservation Fund (along with several other well-heeled environmental conservation groups)...
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